so at last we found a place in the heart of town

finding the perfect apartment in taipei is a daunting task, especially for folk like me with very limited mandarin.

when i arrived in 2005, i gathered that the hand-written red paper signs pasted in apartment windows were "for rent" indicators (which they did indeed turn out to be), but calling these numbers and attempting to garner any useful information in english was like trying to throw a bullet and hoping it would be as effective as shooting it. after one visit to an official letting agent, with an office and such, and being briefly panicked at not being able to afford a place in this city followed by the premature defeatist dismay that i would have to find another asian destination to settle in for a while, i eventually deduced that these dudes are textbook rip-offs.

so i turned to tealit.com, the expat oracle on this little isle, which does have some good deals, mostly in the "to share" section, but the pickings are slim for some parts of the city, and there are some which are a little expensive. if you want to live near the universities, in xindien, or near the shilin night-market, you'll do well on tealit. i also checked out taiwanted.com, and strangely enough there were some ads there that were not on tealit, so its also worth a look.

the most success (and fun) i had looking for a place was with tsuei mama (www.tmm.org.tw) which is a non-profit organisation, staffed mostly with retired taiwanese teachers who provide a forum and some much needed documentation and guidelines for both those intending to rent and landlords. they always have somebody with great english, and the online housing searches are almost infinitely customisable. most of the places are unfurnished, but you can get decent places at rock bottom rent. it seems that we expats like the rooftop apartments more than the average taiwanese, so these tend to be the best deals, especially as these are most often the only apartments with respectably sized balconies. you will have to fork out a bit for using you aircon more often in the summer, though.

we found our place with the help of a taiwanese friend. jason at the surf cafe' on yanji rd searched a local site called 591.com, and as luck would have it, a spot opened up walking distance from jessica's work.

because so much of the city is 4/5floor walk-up with business on the ground and residences above, you could live where you work, which sounded absurd to me when i first encountered it for we south africans are outdoorsy people and living in the business centre of a city, with no garden or a suburban buffer zone between you and commerce is to most a ridiculous notion, but the absence of a commute is a beautiful thing. this with taipei being the safest city i've ever lived in makes inner city dwelling quite wonderful really.

we have a two bedroom rooftop near zhonxioa/dunhua with a japanese bar that features wednesday poker nights and half price beer on the first floor of the building.

enough said